Klinsmann: Kicking the Premier League was hit twice in the head and was lucky to pick up a strip of luck

With the development of modern football, people are paying more and more attention to the safety of football players, especially diseases related to brain degeneration such as Alzheimer's disease and mental confusion, which will be triggered or aggravated by head impacts. German star Klinsmann is deeply worried that his head injury when he represented Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League may cause similar symptoms.

One of Europe's top strikers in the 1990s, Klinsmann played for Tottenham Hotspur twice in the 1994–95 and 1997–98 seasons. What he described as the "worst head collision he ever suffered" occurred in February 1995. At the time, he collided with Aston Villa's Australian goalkeeper Mark Bosnich. The Germans claimed that the collision almost killed him.

It's been 25 years, Klinsmann recalls: "I woke up in the dressing room. The team doctor said: 'You are so lucky!' If he hits you half an inch higher, you're gone! After that, I did a couple of brain scans because in the U.S., in the U.S. soccer world, it's very important to look at the state of the whole brain. As a result, when scanned, they could still see two injuries. ”

After being hit that year, on the BBC's Sports Night programme, the young Klinsmann angrily rebuked Bosnić: "It made me very angry because I couldn't see that he had a chance of getting the ball!" He ran out of the big box, knowing he couldn't use his hands anymore. I think he's going to take risks, to hurt me, to foul me. I think I was lucky that nothing bad happened to me in the end. ”

"I think it's really hard for the referee to see the whole situation. I don't know where the referee is standing, maybe he just wants to 'these two guys bumped into each other, it's not anyone's fault', but this kind of foul is really bad. ”

After 22 years of professional playing, Klinsmann admitted that he may have suffered permanent brain damage. The two-time Tottenham Hotspur scored 38 goals in the Premier League mentioned "two dangerous experiences in the Premier League", except for the one above, the first time was in his Spurs debut against former England international Dys Walker (former Sheffield Wednesday defender, Sheffield Wednesday was the opponent of the first round of the 1994-95 Spurs Premier League).

Klinsmann said: "Those two injuries, I think I was carried off the field for more than 10 minutes for treatment. I think I had 11 stitches in my mouth. When I woke up in the locker room, the wound was already sewn up, and it was a long concussion. ”

Klinsmann is now at home, and his last coaching job was to coach Hertha Berlin in 2020. It is rumored that the Polish team, which has recently lost his position, is interested in him, because the Polish Football Association has taken a fancy to his previous experience in coaching the United States for five years and leading the team to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

(Felix Cat)